Re: [ga] Are the Falkland Islands and Bermuda in Europe?

["Jeanette Hofmann" <jeanette@wz-berlin.de>]

On 8 Jun 2003 at 15:12, Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law wrote:

> 
> Why shouldn't USER populations matter?  Why is land more significant than
> people?

I hope I didn't say that land matters more than user populations. What I meant to 
say is that representation shouldn't be regarded as a pure quantitative issue. 
Cultural diversity is also an important factor. 

Jeanette
> 
> On Sun, 8 Jun 2003, Jeanette Hofmann wrote:
> 
> > On 8 Jun 2003 at 16:24, Marc Schneiders wrote:
> > 
> > > The 5 regions used by ICANN to ascertain geographical representation have
> > > made me uncomfortable for several reasons. One of these is that they are
> > > not nearly of equal size in whatever way you measure that size
> > > (inhabitants, internet users, size of territory).
> > 
> > Dear Marc, it is not always size that matters.  
> > > 
> > > A few days ago a revised version of the allocation of countries and
> > > territories has been put up on the ICANN website. It will be discussed in
> > > Montreal.
> > > 
> > > http://www.icann.org/montreal/geo-regions-topic.html
> > > 
> > > If I understand it, Bermuda and the Falkland Islands are now in Europe.
> > > The same is true for some French territories. Please, note that the
> > > European Union does think that some of these countries/territories are
> > > in Europe and others not. (http://europa.eu.int/abc/maps/index_nl.htm)
> > > 
> > > The reason seems to be the citizenship of the people who live there.  I
> > > don't know about Bermuda and the Falklands, but the two former Dutch
> > > colonies, which are also in 'Europe' now, elect their own parliament etc.
> > > They are independent politically.  The Dutch government does not speak for
> > > Aruba or the Netherlands Antilles. It fights with them occasionally.
> > > 
> > > Is this change to the regions not a step back to colonialism?
> > > 
> > > Anyway, what I would really like to see, is a more balanced regional
> > > division. Look at the 'facts' (population and territory) of the present
> > > regions within ICANN:
> > > 
> > > Asia-Pacific			3798		15,568
> > > Africa                           840		11,698
> > > Europa				 728		 8,875
> > > Latin America-Caribbean		 531		 7,964
> > > North America			 319		 7,699
> > > 
> > > (Source: http://www.prb.org/pdf/WorldPopulationDS02_Eng.pdf)
> > 
> > If you choose population as the criteria, half of the board should be determined 
> > by Asia pacific. 
> > 
> > > 
> > > The proposed changes don't influence these numbers much as they concern
> > > mainly small islands. There is no improvement in them, as far as I can
> > > see.
> > > 
> > > Some may find it important to take the number of internet users into
> > > account. Here are some data (for what they are worth):
> > > 
> > > Europe          190
> > > Asia/Pacific    187
> > > US/Canada       183
> > > Latin America   33
> > > Africa          6
> > > Middle East     5
> > > 
> > > (Source: http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/)
> > > 
> > > This would suggest 3 regions not 5:
> > > 
> > > America                         216
> > > Europe, Africa                  196
> > > Asia/Pacific/Middle East        192
> > 
> > Your proposal implies a lack of independent representation for Africa and the 
> > Middle East as well. In this sense, your model reproduces the digital divide. 
> > 
> > It also implies that the cut of regions would have to be adjusted quite often due to
> > changing user populations. Sounds like a lot of trouble to me. 
> > 
> > Besides, your "balanced regional division" lacks any notion of qualitative criteria such
> > as culture. 
> > 
> > Jeanette 
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
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> > 
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> 
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> A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin@law.tm
> U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
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